A NEW pet superstore will open in on Old Seals Way in Chester next week.

Award-winning retailer Jollyes will open its first Chester store at 10am on Friday, August 16, the new store will replace the empty Poundland unit at Chester Retail Park.

The store will be officially opened by three special guests.

Chester’s Lord Mayor, Cllr Razia Daniels, will be joined by border force detector dog Sully and his handler Olivia Uguz. Sully will bite through a string of sausage to declare the store open.

The canine, like many service animals, may be supported in later years by the National Federation of Retired Servcie Dogs (NFRSA) which Jollyes recently named as a key charity partner.

The NFRSA helps support the care, well-being, and welfare of retired service animals from across the emergency service family - the police, fire, border force, National Crime Agency, NHS and prison services.

Over the next 12 months, all Jollyes’ stores will be raising money for NFRSA with collections matched by Jollyes up to £20,000 that will help NFRSA support retired service animals and their owners.

The new Chester store, which will create 12 jobs will be led by experienced Jollyes store manager Stephen Williams who’s been promoted to the role after 11 years working for Jollyes in Runcorn.

Joining the Chester team are deputy manager Charlie Davis who has been promoted from his role as supervisor at Jollyes’ Flint store and new supervisor Holly Williams.

Part of the opening day celebrations will be two Jollyes ’Ambassadogs’ who’ll be sharing details of the new store and what it has to offer over the coming weeks.

They are Evie, a six months old Labrador cross Border Collie from Hoole who can be found on Instagram and Mr Bear an eight year-old rescue fox-faced Pom who lives close to the store.

Dee Radio will also provide entertainment on opening day with activity continuing into the bank holiday weekend with an entertainer and pet theme gameshows on Saturday 24 August giving every customer the chance to spin Jollyes’ iconic ‘Wheel of Fur-tune’ to win prizes.

Jollyes new store will provide pet parents in Chester access to Jollyes’ raw food frozen ‘shop-in-shop’ and a community pet clinic which will open later this year.

Store manager Stephen Williams said:

“Over the next week we’ll be working hard to get the store ready to welcome our special guests and customers for the first time.

“My whole team is looking forward to delivering the service, expertise – and above all prices – that Jollyes is becoming famous for right across the country.”

Jollyes in Chester will be the company’s 105th store in the UK joining other stores in and around Cheshire in Congleton, Ellesmere Port, Widnes, Runcorn and Warrington. Jollyes main national distribution centre is also in Middlewich, Cheshire.

Jollyes has grown its store estate by 50 per cent in the last three years, recently winning new investment to supercharge its growth.

It has also being named as the best retailer in Britain at the prestigious Retail Week awards for retailers under £250m turnover, and making the Sunday Times’ list for the first time as one of Britain’s best big companies to work for.